Pomeroy turbines are being repowered

MidAmerican will upgrade wind farm to make more power, and last longer

POMEROY -- Wind turbines in Pocahontas and Calhoun counties are getting an upgrade to produce more power and last longer.

MidAmerican Energy will be "repowering" up to 171 turbines in the Pomeroy wind farm this year.

"We hope to start by early summer," said MidAmerican public relations representative Geoff Greenwood.

Work is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year. MidAmerican will be replacing the blades with longer blades, replacing the hub piece that holds the blades, Greenwood said, and upgrading some key internal components within the nacelle.

"That's where the gears are located and the generator," he said.

Wind farms go up in phases, Greenwood said, and the turbines being repowered here were part of a phase that completed in 2008.

"The repowering makes these turbines 19 percent more efficient. So we get a pretty good bump from the repowering," Greenwood said. "The farm itself produces 286.4 megawatts. On average it can power 55,000 homes."

"Bottom line, it generates more energy from the same spot, from the same location, and can harvest more energy from the available winds, and also extends the life of the turbines."

MidAmerican announced last fall that it would be repowering wind turbines all across Iowa. Initial sites it planned to upgrade were the Century wind farm in Wright and Hamilton counties, the Victory wind farm in Crawford and Carroll counties, and the Intrepid wind farm in Buena Vista and Sac counties.

"We're excited to take this next step in our journey toward our 100 percent renewable energy vision," said Bill Fehrman, president and CEO of MidAmerican, in September 2017.

"Repowering our older wind turbines brings us closer to achieving that vision in a way that provides both economic and environmental benefits to our customers and the state of Iowa. In 2021 when both our repowering and Wind XI projects are complete, we expect to generate renewable energy equal to 95 percent of our Iowa retail customers' annual use."